The hot, humid weather results in a proliferation of snails and slugs that love discovering your garden. Most species clean up the place by eating the remains of dead plants, but others prefer to prey on living plants. What to do? Here are some tips to avoid being invaded.
How to get rid of snails in the garden naturally
Certain species of snails and slugs can cause serious damage to your garden (vegetable patch). But pesticides, like anti-snail granules, are inherently hostile to animals and can be harmful to other animal species as well. So here are some greener ideas.
1. Avoid snails from entering the garden
Choose plants that snails don't like, such as columbine, marigold, sage, ivy, violet, and all varieties of ferns. Place vulnerable plants away from damp places such as compost. During the day and evening, snails seek out moist soil, so it is best to water the plants early in the morning. It is also a good idea to do a big garden cleaning every spring. By turning over the earth, you destroy the overwintering snails and their eggs. This significantly reduces the snail population.
2. Attract natural enemies
In a garden attractive to hedgehogs, birds, shrews, frogs, and toads, snails will be less likely to proliferate. To attract them, you have to create enough sheltered and hidden places, in short, to have a rather natural garden.
3. Protect plants
Plants favored by snails can be protected by a barrier of coffee grounds, cocoa pods, eggshells, or crushed seashells. Garlic is poisonous to snails; they will avoid your plants if you spray them with garlic extract, which you can make yourself. Cut a bulb of garlic into several pieces, add a liter of water and let steep for 24 hours.
4. Capture the snails
In the evening or when the weather is wet, the snails come out and are then easy to catch by hand. You can also attract them by setting up shelters. Snails like to shelter under the skin of half a grapefruit, orange, or melon, the smell being an added attraction. Other simple shelters are celery stalks, rhubarb leaves, and or cabbage leaves, just like damp plants and wet newspapers or pieces of cardboard. Once captured, snails can be released to a remote location where they cannot cause damage.
5. Make a snail trap
Traps with beer or other fermented drinks are effective against snails. Attracted by the smell, they slip into the liquid and drown. Snail traps are sold at garden centers, but a jam jar is also effective. Don't bury these traps. Ground beetles often fall into buried pots, although they are a natural enemy of the snail.
6. Buy anti snail tape
Anti snail tape is sold in garden centers. This ribbon contains copper, which sends a small discharge to the snails which want to cross it and quickly makes them (so to speak) flee. The tape can, for example, be stuck on the edge of flowerpots, boxes, or around tree trunks.
Tags:
snail